Jacques Derrida facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jacques Derrida
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| Born |
Jackie Élie Derrida
15 July 1930 El Biar, French Algeria
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| Died | 9 October 2004 (aged 74) Paris, France
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| Education | École normale supérieure (BA, MA, Dr. cand.) Harvard University (postgrad) University of Paris (DrE) |
| Spouse(s) |
Marguerite Aucouturier
(m. 1957) |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
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Notable ideas
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Jacques Derrida (born Jackie Élie Derrida; 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an important French thinker. He was born in Algeria. He is famous for creating a way of thinking called deconstruction.
During his life, Derrida wrote over 40 books. He also published hundreds of essays and gave many talks. His ideas greatly influenced many subjects. These include philosophy, literature, and law. He also impacted anthropology, history, and how we study language. His work even touched on music, architecture, and political theory.
Even in the 2000s, his ideas were very important in universities. This was true in the United States, Europe, and South America. His work was especially key in discussions about what exists (ontology) and how we know things (epistemology). It also shaped ideas about right and wrong (ethics) and beauty (aesthetics).
Life of Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was born on 15 July 1930. This was in Algeria, which was then part of France. His father, Aimé Derrida, worked for a wine company. His parents first named him "Jackie." They thought it sounded like an American name. Later, he changed it to "Jacques" when he moved to Paris.
Jacques was the third of five children. He grew up in Algiers and El-Biar. For a year, he secretly skipped school. He played a lot of soccer and dreamed of becoming a professional player. During his teenage years, he read books by famous thinkers. These included Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Gide. These books helped him question his family and society. He also read works by Camus and Sartre.
In the late 1940s, he went to school in Algiers. In 1949, he moved to Paris. He then studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Derrida later received a special grant. This allowed him to study at Harvard University in the United States. In 1956 and 1957, he spent time reading James Joyce's famous book, Ulysses.
In June 1957, he married Marguerite Aucouturier in Boston. She was a psychoanalyst. From 1957 to 1959, during the Algerian War of Independence, Derrida taught. He taught French and English to soldiers' children instead of serving in the military.
After the war, from 1960 to 1964, Derrida taught philosophy. He worked at the Sorbonne. His first child, Pierre, was born in 1963. In 1964, he got a permanent teaching job. This was at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS). He stayed there until 1984.
In 1966, Derrida gave a talk called "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences". This talk helped his work become known around the world. His second son, Jean, was born in 1967. That same year, Derrida published his first three books. These were Writing and Difference, Speech and Phenomena, and Of Grammatology.
In 1980, he received his first special award. This was an honorary doctorate from Columbia University.
Derrida traveled a lot and held many teaching jobs. In 1984, he became a full professor in Paris. He also helped start the Collège international de philosophie (CIPH) in 1983. This was a place for new philosophical research. He was chosen as its first president. In 1985, his third child, Daniel, was born.
In 1986, Derrida became a professor at the University of California, Irvine. He taught there until shortly before he passed away in 2004. He was also a visiting professor at many other major universities. These included Johns Hopkins University and Yale University.
He received many more honorary doctorates. These were from universities like University of Cambridge and University of Essex. In 2001, he received the Adorno-Preis from the University of Frankfurt.
Near the end of his life, Derrida was part of two films about himself. These were D'ailleurs, Derrida (1999) and Derrida (2002).
Derrida was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2002. He died during surgery in a Paris hospital on 9 October 2004.
His Important Books
- Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences (1966)
- Of Grammatology (1967)
- Speech and Phenomena (1967)
- Writing and Difference (1967)
- Margins of Philosophy (1972)
- Signature Event Context (1972)
- Positions (1972)
See also
In Spanish: Jacques Derrida para niños
